


that's how easy love can be

by jooheon



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, boys getting together, rei being an oblivious fuq, the lightest of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 15:12:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11557824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jooheon/pseuds/jooheon
Summary: When Rei confides in Nagisa about his crush on Haru, he's expecting smiles, squeals, an excited pounce. He's expecting — well, a typical Nagisa reaction. Instead, Nagisa's hand flies to his mouth and his eyes go wide and shocked and he makes a face like he's just been punched in the gut.





	that's how easy love can be

**Author's Note:**

> KY = kuuki yomenai (空気読めない) which is a way to describe someone who can't "read the air" aka can't read the situation/mood.

When Rei confides in Nagisa about his crush on Haru, he's expecting smiles, squeals, an excited pounce. He's expecting — well, a typical Nagisa reaction. Instead, Nagisa's hand flies to his mouth and his eyes go wide and shocked and he makes a face like he's just been punched in the gut.

"Say something," Rei mutters, feeling his face heat up despite the cool ocean breeze. He turns his gaze away from Nagisa and toward the sea and the shimmering moon.

"Rei-chan," Nagisa says. "Listen. About Haru." He pauses.

"Yeah?"

"Well," Nagisa hedges, "I mean, gosh. Do you like him because you  _like_  him, or do you like him because he's Haru?"

"Huh?" Rei narrows his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"'Cause like," Nagisa continues, his words coming fast and high pitched, "I like Haru, too, you know? He's  _Haru_ , he's got that, that  _aura_ about him, that kind of, I guess, weirdly magnetic lone-wolf type of charm. And I can see why maybe a person could think that, just because they really admire Haru, they also have romantic feelings for him, I totally get how a person would come to that conclusion, but just. That might not be the case?"

"Nagisa," Rei says, annoyance bubbling in his stomach. "I like him, alright. I came to you to have a serious conversation about this."

"Yeah," Nagisa says, letting out a long, heavy sigh. "You — yeah. I — I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Rei says.

"And, hey?" Nagisa offers a small smile, a shadow of his usual cheer. "Thanks for trusting me with this."

Rei readjusts his glasses, clears his throat. For some reason, he feels oddly self-conscious.

"Naturally," he says stiffly. And Nagisa giggles softly into the nighttime air.

 

* * *

 

"That's _why_ , Mako-chan," Nagisa's saying. Rei freezes on the top stair at the sound of his voice, unusually frenzied. "You have to tell him!"

"I'll tell him," Makoto replies slowly, "we were planning to tell him, but Nagisa, you haven't really explained why you're all worked up like this…"

"I hate secrets," Nagisa says. Rei knows without a doubt that Nagisa's pouting like a pufferfish and crossing his arms in consternation.

"You’re right," Makoto says. "Which is why we’re about to tell him."

"What are you doing, Rei?"

"Haruka-senpai!" Rei squeaks, spinning around to find Haru staring at him quizzically on the staircase. "Um! I wasn't doing anything — I was just —"

"It's rude to eavesdrop." Haru pushes open the door to the roof.

"I wasn't — I'm sorry!" Rei sputters, blushing furiously and following Haru into the light.

"Good timing, you two," Makoto says as Haru and Rei cross the rooftop. He flashes that sunny smile. "Rei, me and Haru have something to say."

_Haru and I_ , Rei thinks.  _But whatever._

"Do you want to say it, or do you want me to?" Makoto says to Haru.

Haru shrugs.

"Okay," Makoto nods. "So, uh, yeah. We're dating."

The bottom drops out of Rei's stomach. "We — you mean —"

"Me and Haru," Makoto clarifies.

_Haru and I._

_Me and Haru._

_Dating._

This had to have been why Nagisa had been so cautionary upon hearing Rei's secret. Not because he didn't approve, but because he knew Rei didn't have a chance in hell. Suddenly the sunlight seems far too bright, and Rei is blinking madly, trying to clear his vision. He wipes a finger to one eye and is shocked when it comes away wet. Is he — crying? It’s hard to tell, as his face seems to have gone numb. The world is reduced to a flat, blurry haze.

Then, through the haze, he realizes that the other three are waiting for him to say something. He blinks and refocuses. Makoto's watching him anxiously, and Haru, though his expression remains placid, is doing that  _Haru_ thing where his cobalt eyes glitter and force Rei's insides to do frenetic somersaults. Nagisa looks like he's going to throw up.

"That's great," Rei hears himself say.

"Glad you think so," Makoto says warmly, sounding relieved.

"Is there something wrong with your eye?" Haru asks, moving closer to inspect Rei's face.

"Huh? No," Rei says. He brings his hand to his face again, and — oh. Tears. So, yeah, he's crying, then. "Just, ah, a speck of dirt must have gotten under my glasses."

"Oh no," Makoto says sympathetically, "here, I've got a handkerchief —"

"It's fine," Rei says. "I'll just go rinse my eye in the restroom."

"I'll go with you," Nagisa volunteers.

When they get to the bathroom, it's Nagisa who breaks down.

"Rei-chan," he wails, "I'm sorry!"

Rei squints at him. "Huh?"

"I should have told you — when you told me you liked Haru — but Mako-chan told me not to tell, so — but — ah, I didn't want to hurt your feelings!" Nagisa sobs, burrowing his head into Rei's chest.

"It's okay," Rei says bemusedly. Shouldn't he be the one who's upset here? He's never known Nagisa to go so overboard with vicarious emotions, but he supposes it just means that he cares for Rei. Which is a good thing. Probably.

"But you were so serious about it," Nagisa continues shakily, his voice muffled by Rei's uniform. "And I wanted you to be happy but — I mean, Makoto and Haru are, like — soulmates or some shit, so I don't know — "

"Hey," Rei says, patting Nagisa’s head awkwardly. Idly he makes a note to ask Nagisa what conditioner he uses — his hair is always  _so_ soft. "It's okay. There’s no need for you to be so torn up about it."

"Really?" Nagisa sniffles without lifting his head.

"Yeah," Rei says softly. "Really."

Of course, it still hurts, knowing that Haru's chosen someone else. It hurts to think that Makoto shares a bond with Haru that Rei could probably never hope to achieve. And the prospect of going to swim practice with those two and smiling like he's happy for them — that hurts too. But in one sense, the pain of rejection is preferable to the pain of not knowing, of always waiting on pins and needles for an answer that can  _never_ come because Rei's too afraid to ask the question. Before, he'd been pining after Haru hopelessly, aching for him restlessly. At least heartbreak, he thinks, means closure.

"Well thank  _god,_ " Nagisa says brightly, straightening up and grinning at Rei. "I was really worried, you know!"

"Not  _that_ worried, apparently," Rei says, grimacing at Nagisa's abrupt mood swing.

"Well, now that I know you're fine," Nagisa reasons, "I'm fine too! Let's go back and eat lunch."

"Alright," Rei sighs. He lets Nagisa lead him by the hand out of the bathroom and says sardonically, "Thanks so much for comforting me, Nagisa-kun."

Nagisa winks. "Anything for Rei-chan!"

 

* * *

 

Gou already knew, it turns out. And Nagisa knew. And Ama-sensei knew. Even Rin and his Samezuka contingent were apparently all privy to the fact of Makoto and Haru’s relationship before Rei.

“Why am I always the last one to know everything?” he complains, stabbing viciously at the octopus weiners in his lunch box.

“Butthurt is so not a cute look on you,” Gou says primly. “And for your information, it’s because you’re painfully oblivious. Nagisa’s the only one they actually  _told_ , you know.”

“And that was only because I walked in on them making out!” Nagisa pipes up.

“Right,” Gou says. “The rest of us just used our fucking eyes.”

Rei glances to the other side of the rooftop, where Makoto and Haru are sitting cross-legged across from each other, eating out of each other’s lunches. Makoto’s rambling on loudly about something trivial, cheeks flushed in the hot sun, and Haru’s just listening, looking up at him occasionally with glittering eyes and the faintest hint of a curve to his lips.

“I don’t think I could have been expected to  _guess_ that they were dating,” Rei says.

“So this is what they call KY,” Nagisa says, gazing at Rei in feigned amazement. “Incredible.”

“Shut up,” Rei mumbles.

“It’s okay, Rei,”  Gou says. “Now we know. We’ll spell everything out for you, always, from now on.”

“That won’t be necessary.”

“Yeah,” Gou says, looking shrewd all of a sudden, “I really think it might be.”

 

* * *

 

Weeks pass, and Rei thinks about it long and hard, and finally decides:

"I think you were right," he tells Nagisa. "I think I probably projected romantic feelings onto him based on a purely platonic admiration of his athletic abilities."

"Did you read that from a book," Nagisa says, flipping to the next page of his manga. They're ostensibly at Rei’s house to study together, but as usual, they appear to be going by different definitions of the word. Rei is making flashcards from his notes; Nagisa is catching up on One Piece.

"No," Rei says, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I just reflected on it for a while, and after a thorough comparative analysis between myself and Makoto-senpai, I don't think that, realistically, Haruka-senpai and I are very romantically compatible, that's all."

"Oh, Rei-chan,” Nagisa says, peering over his manga. “You shouldn’t have to compare yourself to Mako-chan to figure that one out.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rei says, narrowing his eyes.

“Nothing bad,” Nagisa says quickly. “Just, y’know. Their relationship is like, the seventh wonder of the world.”

“Nagisa, you know there are already seven wonders.”

“What I  _mean_  is that Makoto and Haru were probably engineered in a lab for each other,” Nagisa says impatiently. “The reason Mako-chan’s more compatible with Haru than you are is because he’s got literal telepathy sensors implanted in his cerebral cortex. Not because you’re… I don’t know.  _Less_ than him in any way. You're not.”

“If I’m parsing your sci-fi blathering correctly,” Rei says slowly, “that was meant as a compliment of sorts.”

“Ding ding ding.”

“Well, thank you, Nagisa-kun,” Rei says. “I appreciate it. Unnecessary as it is. I’ve moved on from my crush, as it were. It was never very realistic.”

“’Cause Haru-chan’s an alien?” Nagisa says.

“No,” Rei says slowly, “because I get so self-conscious around him always. Being able to relax and let one’s guard down around one’s partner is an essential component of true intimacy.”

“You definitely read that out of a book.”

“I believe it, though,” Rei says, ears burning. “My ideal partner is someone whose companionship feels natural as breathing. Someone who can walk by my side, instead of someone I’m always running to catch up to. Someone whose weak points are my strong ones and vice versa, so that we complete each other.”

Nagisa’s staring at him strangely now, and Rei feels himself breathing a little too hard. 

“That someone isn’t Haru,” he finishes lamely. “So I… I’ll keep looking.”

“You do that, Rei-chan,” Nagisa says, burying his head back in his manga. “You do that.”

 

* * *

 

There’s something about Nagisa’s boundlessly cheerful disposition that feels like a force field: like the power of positive thinking is so strong with this one that it protects him from physical harm. That’s what Rei’s always thought, at least. No one that hyper all the time could possibly be anything but invincible. It’s charming almost as often as it’s irritating.

But apparently Nagisa  _does_ have a weakness, and it’s getting a soccer ball kicked right into the side of his head during PE. There’s a loud, sickening  _thwack_ as it happens, and then Nagisa crumples right to the ground. Rei is at his side in a heartbeat with no memory of sprinting across the field.

“Nagisa!”

“’m okay,” Nagisa slurs at all the people gathered around him, “’m fine.”

He tries to sit up for a moment, then slumps back down. Rei kneels beside him immediately.

“Shit, Hazuki, I’m so sorry,” the boy who kicked the ball is saying, distraught, “I didn’t mean to —”

“You could have a concussion,” Rei says tersely over him. Curled up on the dirt field with his hair everywhere and his eyes wandering, unfocused, Nagisa half-smiles.

“I don’t have one of  _those_ ,” he says.

“He needs to go to the infirmary,” someone says.

“I’ll take him,” Rei says. “Nagisa, can you walk?”

“No,” Nagisa whines. “Carry me, Rei-chan.”

“Are you sure?” Rei says.

“Carry me,” Nagisa repeats. He closes his eyes. “Princess-style.”

Rei carries him to the infirmary on his back. Nagisa’s surprisingly heavy for his small frame, and Rei has to pause to hitch him up and shift his grip every so often, to little approving huffs from Nagisa.

“You’re so big and strong, Rei-chan,” Nagisa mumbles. His lips tickle Rei’s left earlobe. “I should do this more often.”

“Get hit in the head?” Rei says severely. “Please don’t, Nagisa-kun. For my peace of mind, just don’t.”

After a brief inspection the nurse rules that Nagisa probably does not have a concussion. But she advises that he rest in one of the infirmary beds for at least the rest of the period, and gives him an ice pack to hold to his head, which he does reluctantly.

“You don’t actually have to stay with me,” Nagisa says when the nurse goes back to her office. “I know I just spent five minutes begging you to, but if you don’t want to…”

“If I go back without you the teams will be uneven,” Rei points out. “Also, I do want to stay with you.”

Nagisa beams.

“See,” he says. “It’s that. That right there. That’s why you’re my favorite, Rei-chan.”

“Why?” says Rei, nonplussed.

“Because — ” Nagisa starts, and then he wrinkles his nose in that stupidly endearing way he has. “Just because, Rei-chan. I don’t know why, you just  _are_.”

“Thanks, then?” Rei says, grinning. “I think… you’re my favorite, too.”

Something in Nagisa softens then, and he looks up at Rei from the bed, tousled and sun-kissed and warm, familiar but also skin-tinglingly nice in a way that Rei’s never tried to articulate before. The revelation hits him like a gale force wind, sucks the air right out of his lungs.

_It’s Nagisa_.

Maybe it’s been Nagisa all along — or maybe this is a recent development, these more-than-friend feelings. Rei doesn’t know. He doesn’t care. What he cares about is how stunningly obvious this feels now, and how much of a bumbling idiot he’s been, shoving his crush on Haru in Nagisa’s face.

_Of course_  it’s Nagisa — wonderful, insufferable Nagisa, fiery and soft and  _beautiful_ Nagisa. Haru was a figure on a pedestal; Nagisa is Rei’s  _best friend_.

His best friend whom he very much wants to kiss right now.

“What’s wrong, Rei-chan,” Nagisa says quietly, setting the ice pack down carefully on the bedside table. “You look constipated.”

“I’m fine,” Rei manages to say, throat tight. “I’m okay. Except, Nagisa-kun, I —”

Just then the bell rings, startling Rei to his feet.

“Going back to class?” Nagisa says, starting to sit up. “I’ll go with you, can you grab my shoes…”

“No,” Rei says, “you stay here and rest.”

Nagisa’s brow furrows, and he opens his mouth to protest, but Rei cuts him off.

“ _Rest_ ,” he says, “there’s only one more period until school’s out anyway. I’ll come back and we can go home together, okay?”

“Okay,” Nagisa says, mollified, as he settles back into the bed. “I’ll be waiting, then.”

 

* * *

 

When Rei confesses to Nagisa, he’s expecting smiles, squeals, an excited pounce. He’s expecting Nagisa to take him by the hand, or to leap into his arms, or to gaze into his eyes and say, “I feel the same way.”

(He should really know by now that his expectations don’t mean jack shit when it comes to the actions of one Hazuki Nagisa.)

Instead, Nagisa pouts and says, “God, Rei-chan, learn to read the air, can’t you?”

To be fair, Rei probably should have thought it through a bit more before he decided to make his dramatic confession on the train ride home. But in his defense, it was only about forty percent an active, conscious decision, and sixty percent pure instinct as Nagisa sat across from him, doing absolutely nothing but looking like an angel, hair illuminated from behind, skin flushed on the warm train. Lips parted slightly, round and ruddy. Rei feels he can’t be blamed for not holding back, for blurting it out, especially because there’s only two other people on this train.

“I’m sorry,” he says, but he isn’t, really. Nagisa also doesn’t look particularly upset.

“You can’t just spring that on me in a public place, Rei-chan,” Nagisa says, eyes gleaming. “I can’t  _do_ anything about it here.”

“Oh,” Rei says, not quite getting it.

“I can’t believe in all of your research,” Nagisa continues, “you didn’t plan an elaborate confession that ended in a well-choreographed yet very passionate kiss.”

“ _Oh_.” Rei swallows. “I didn’t plan this, though.”

“How very unlike you!”

Rei crosses his arms. “I think I know the answer, but it would really put me at ease if you would stop teasing me and give me a proper response, Nagisa-kun.”

Nagisa sighs. “Rei-chan. I like you. Of course I do, I have since forever. I like you more than anything, I like you more than cake. But I feel like I shouldn’t  _say_ that without instantly following up by making out with you. Which I can’t do here. So I say, again: read the air.”

“Alright,” Rei says. The conductor announces the next stop, and the train begins to slow down. “Okay. Let’s get off.”

“This is not our stop, Rei-chan,” Nagisa says.

“Do you want me to rectify my error, or not?” Rei hikes his backpack up and goes to stand by the door. “Follow me, Nagisa-kun.”

“Ooh, I like it when you boss me around,” Nagisa murmurs.

It’s a small station. Within a minute of the train pulling away, the entire platform is cleared. Rei finds a small, tucked-away space between a vending machine and the slanted concrete underside of an out-of-order escalator. He pulls Nagisa in by the hand, and they stand, very close, in the cramped dusty space.

“Nagisa,” Rei says carefully, “I like you. Will you go out with me?”

“Rei-chan,” Nagisa says with equal solemnity. “Hell yes.”

The gap between them isn’t much, and Rei closes it swiftly, pressing his lips to Nagisa’s with all the undignified glory of a teenage boy’s first kiss. Nagisa tastes good, of sugar and strawberries, but it’s somewhat long and uncomfortable. Rei realizes he needs to breathe.

He pulls back for a moment, head spinning, but then Nagisa’s hands are on his chest, clutching at his lapels, tugging him in closer.

“Again,” he whispers.

The second go is a bit more of a success, because Rei remembers to breathe through his nose, and Nagisa moves his mouth, opens it a bit, gets some tongue involved. They say that time flies when you’re having fun; all too suddenly, the tinny melody signaling that their train is approaching is sounding overhead, and Rei realizes groggily, as though emerging from a haze, that his hands are tangled in Nagisa’s hair, that Nagisa’s got one thigh wrapped around his waist, and that they’re both half-hard against each other.

“We should go,” Rei pants. He barely recognizes the sound of his own voice.

“Don’t wanna,” Nagisa says petulantly. His thigh remains locked in place.

“We  _have_ to go,” Rei says, untangling himself. “I already told my mom you were coming over to our house to study today.”

“Oh my god,” Nagisa exhales, “we’re going to your house.”

“Yes. I just said that.”

“We’ll be in your house. Together. In your room. Alone.”

Rei straightens his glasses. “Provided we don’t miss this train.”

“In that case,” Nagisa says brightly, “to be continued.”

Rei can’t help but crack a smile at how deviously Nagisa’s grinning up at him.

“Yes,” he agrees. “To be continued.”

**Author's Note:**

> this is old lmao


End file.
